Help with your answer

The spoils system was first used when Andrew Jackson was president. Basically, the most loyal party members and closest friends of the president were given political office. In other words, getting a political job was based on loyalty, rather than skill. Many presidents, like Garfield, used this spoils system in the Gilded Age because the Gilded Age was more about party loyalty, politically speaking. During the Gilded Age, there was no major event politically because of the spoils system.

Well into the nineteenth century, most government positions were distributed by the president himself in order to reward political supporters. President Andrew Jackson is often credited with introducing the "spoils system" as a tool for strengthening the base of his political party.